Healthcare: A Proxy War for Liberty

The 20th century witnessed an abundance of proxy wars.  These local conflicts around the world mirrored the greater chess match of the Cold War struggle against communism.  Without having to commit ourselves fully to an all out war, we championed our ideas through aid to other nations. 

The current healthcare debate is a proxy war.  It is a proxy war for our personal liberty in the face of government oppression.  Some say we could be more like Sweden or the United Kingdom.  I would remind you that our founders left the oppression of these very European shores where Government had already become a byword for control.  You show me a nation who dictates your education, your healthcare, your livelihood, and your religious freedom, and I will show you a society built on obligation rather than passion, fear rather than determination, and depression that devours the very essence of the word "hope."  

We stand on the precipice of forgetting the very concepts that drove the huddled masses to the ships in the first place.  For do not be fooled into thinking that they have corrected the past government oppression in Europe.  On the contrary, their current system is simply the natural progression of the one our ancestors abandoned and warded off with muskets and bayonets.  In these United States we have fought and died to establish and perfect our freedom, and I say we are, and will remain free.  'America the beautiful' is but a mere, foggy memory as we look into the faces of millions of our own who live in government supported and government sanctioned poverty with little hope.  In the America I know, mediocre is not praised as the dream, but there is always something greater on the horizon - something that transcends a single generation of thinkers - something that burned deep in the hearts of our founding fathers when they penned the words "We the people" in open opposition to the imperial notion of 'we the government.' 

Our children's future lies not in the next great plan or the next towering stack of legislative morass, but rather the near dormant promise of freedom embedded in our national conscience.  We must awaken this vision so the sounds of liberty may once again toll out across our entire nation.   Why do people fear the very name of our nation's capital?  Why is it spoken of as a place of corruption and bloated spending? 

No, my pride in our nation runs deep, and I believe it is time to shed the veil of contempt for our protectors and return the government to its role of service to our great nation.  We can once again taste the freedom of the pioneer as we join together in one voice to declare that we are again the United States - united in freedom, justice, and hope.  Do not let brightly colored lies distract from the true goal of liberty.  Hold fast in its defense, and pray that God blesses our great nation in the coming days.  

The Back-story: Why is the Word Plague so Scary?

The Biblical book of Exodus chapter eleven records the tenth and final plague leveraged against the land of Egypt by a God bent on delivering His people. The Plague of Death killed the firstborn of all who neglected to mark the surroundings of their doorways with the blood of a freshly killed sacrificial lamb. The famously dreadful plagues of the Torah only further to connect our fears of mass pestilence and disease. The fear is timeless. It is a faceless terror with no organization to wreak vengeance upon; no person to blame. Pandemics have happened across time. In fact, I myself had a great-grandmother die of the Spanish Influenza in 1918, and most of us recall the Bird Flu scares of more recent years. Yet however heinous these other epidemics, the word ‘plague’ conjures up grotesque and putrid images that must certainly dull in comparison to the real experiences of true eyewitnesses. 

The most historically famous instance is the massive spread of the bacteria Yersinia pestis in the 1340s and 50s. One third or more of Europe’s population died (roughly 25% of the world’s total population). The Black Plague, or Black Death, had traveled out of Asia on the backs of rats who took to the new era of open trade and commerce with gusto. The Xenopsylla cheopis [Oriental Rat Flea] was the prime carrier of the plague and simply transferred the infection to humans after biting the infected rats. In many cases, the plague became bubonic, one of several manifestations of the bacteria in question. Lymph nodes under the arms and groin swelled along with a litany of other appalling symptoms that subjected victims to tremendous torment before an ever imminent death. All of this terrible suffering happened in the cradle of our modern, Western civilization. Thus, all of the fear experienced by the survivors of the 14th century plague was passed on as readily as the disease itself. As cultural descendants of these individuals, we now cringe at the word ‘plague’ because it personifies the powerlessness and utter despair we feel when faced with an uncontrollable and unpredictable enemy. But will we ever face such a threat again?

Our modern world is much better equipped to identify and contain naturally occurring diseases. However, in the future there may very well be faces to blame, organizations to seek out, and terrorists to arrest. Could someone weaponize the worst nightmare of the Medieval world and attempt to unleash it on the 21st century? It has happened before, and could easily happen again. Unit 731, biological warfare, and a global society will all be discussed in an upcoming post in an effort to learn from our past experiences with the Plague. 

*For an interesting story of what could happen based on what has happened, see Tim Downs’ novel Plague Maker.